Sunday, October 11, 2015

Forgotten TV: Face The Music (1980)

Syndicator Sandy Frank had been distributing the legendary music quiz, Name That Tune, for syndication. Seeing how well it was doing in the ratings, Frank figured, hey, I can make my own show along the same line. Well, not quite.

Face The Music was a mid-season entry that debuted in January 1980, and ran for 2 seasons total. Actor Ron Ely (ex-Tarzan) was tapped to host, having never done a game show before in this capacity. Frank brought over former Tune musical director Tommy Oliver to conduct the band, most of which also came over from Tune, and featured Lisa Donovan as the in house singer. So it was a clone of Tune after all, you think. Nope. The game play was a wee bit different, as you're about to see.

Veteran announcer John Harlan came over from Tune in the fall of '80 to replace Dave Williams for whatever reason. Not that it helped, since Face was cancelled soon after.

Ely's last high-profile gig might've been his most embarrassing, tasked to succeed Bert Parks as the host of the Miss America Pageant. Can you say, one-&-done? Yup.